Magic no Jutsu!
by Jean B. Accolay
Summary: The Naruto people go to the Harry Potter universe. Why has Dumbledore let them come? Why are they training so hard? Pairings: Sasunaru Gaaraneji HarryDraco.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one**

"Guys, we got a letter!"

Kankuro looked up from his puppets.

"What kind of letter?"

Temari looked at the envelope in her hand.

"It's for all three of us."

Gaara got up and walked over from where he had been watching kankuro. Kankuro also came to Temari's side. They looked at the piece of paper in Temari's hand.

_To: Sabaku no Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro_

_Apartment seven, Sunaga housing, Sunaga_

They looked on the back. There was a sign with a badger, lion, snake and eagle all around a letter H.

"Is that the symbol of their village?" Kankuro wondered.

Gaara shrugged. They opened the letter and read it.

"Witchcraft and Wizardry? What's that?" asked Temari.

"Maybe some school for jutsu. Genjutsu, most probably," suggested Kankuro.

"But why do we need all this stuff?",said Temari.

All three stared at the long list of books and robes and materials.

"I don't know. Are they scrolls or something? Huh…"Kankuro said.

"Well, should we go?" asked Gaara. Shukaku snorted derisively at the letter.

"Sure, why not. But I guess we should talk to Baki first." said Temari.

Baki looked at the three sand nins.

"…"

"Well?" Kankuro asked impatiently.

"As long as this does not interrupt your Baki's Special Summer Extra Strength Training Routine," Baki said slowly, "you…may go."

"Aw, man," said Kankuro. He had been hoping that they would get to go to this school instead of staying in Sunaga and doing the grueling BSSESTR. Ah, well. At least he would be on shape for whatever special training the school threw at them.

What, exactly, is Baki's Special Summer Extra Strength Training Routine?

Every day, the three sand nins got up at six to run through every street, alley, and sand park in Sunaga, on a time limit. If they couldn't make it, they had to do an extra 500 pushups. After they ran, they ate a quick breakfast. Then they did thousands of various exercises that changed depending on what day it was, including pushups, situps, miles of laps of lunges, pull-ups, chin-ups, crunches, suicides, spent hours doing the electric chair and holding their arms out to their sides and wallsits. Gaara, being weak physically, had the most trouble with this at first, but after a couple of weeks, even he got used to it. Right before lunch, they ran 500 laps around the training ground. After lunch, they sparred with one another (this was supervised by Baki, who shouted instructions and criticism from the sidelines). Then they ran another 500 laps before dinner. After that, the sand sibs did more miscellaneous exercises until 9:00pm. They had one hour of free time, then went to bed at ten.

After half a month of this, the three and Baki went to Konoha to do the regime there, on the hard ground, unlike the sandy floor of Sunaga. They met the rookie nine and Tsunade, and caught up with each other since the whole Sasuke incident. Then, after the rest of the month was over, they went back home to Sunaga to train their individual jutsu and to review the basics-chakra control, walking up walls, doppelgangers, etc. After half a month, they went to Konoha again to train their jutsus. Until then, they hadn't used any of their particular jutsus and had sealed off Gaara's sand so he couldn't "cheat" as Kankuro put it. Now they unsealed him. He started to work together with Shukaku, the demon even starting to talk to him normally. He got his sand to move faster than the human eye could see, and tripled the power of both his defense and his sand attacks. His stealth, too, he developed, creating not only a third eye, but ears, too, so he could hear what was going on in another place. Temari went into the desert, took out her giant fan, and practiced until she couldn't feel her arms anymore. She created huge sandstorms/tornados, sent them speeding towards Sunaga, raced them to the village, then broke them up before they could hit. She also practiced with her weasel. Kankuro did…hand exercises.

…

Gaara and Temari: **burst out laughing**

Kankuro: **glares** Shut up!

Accolay: --;;

He, in his one hour of spare time (when he wasn't asleep, of course) went to the library in Sunaga and took out scrolls and scrolls on puppet jutsu. He was surprised at how many there were. There were even some ancient ones from the Akatsuki(sp?). He studied and practiced from them. He got his puppets to climb walls like he could, and control them from great distances. They became more efficient than a solid doppleganger. Remembering his fight with Shino, he fixed them so they were totally sealed off from any outside interference, no matter how small, with the same performance level, and at the same time, deliberately take them apart as separate weapons. He learned to use them to spy more effectively by putting a little of his chakra in Karasu's head, which enabled him to see from the puppet's point of view and hear what it was "hearing". He would sometimes use the puppets to impersonate himself, but his siblings somehow always knew it was him. Darn. Actually, his siblings and Baki made him open a puppet show on the side. He was really good at it, and the children loved it, but the biggest reason he did it was the fact he got money out of it. Or so he said.

By the end of the summer, the sand sibs were totally exhausted. On the last day of summer, the three collapsed on the worn, overstuffed couch in their small apartment. Baki looked at them in satisfaction.

Kankuro flipped him the bird.  
"Well!" said Baki, unphased by this display. "You can go to this new jutsu school!"

"Oh, joy," muttered Gaara, rubbing his face with both hands.

**Make the best of it, human. You might as well. I'm actually looking forward to this.**

…_you are?_

**Yeah. More people to play with!**

…

In Konoha, the rookie nine were going through the same training regime, because the teachers were evil and conspired against them. But only Neji, Hinata, Sasuke, and Naruto had gotten the letters. By the end of _their_ summer, Neji, using his Byakugan, could see through anything from feet-thick steel walls to chakra points to any illusion, spell or jutsu. He could broaden his perspective for miles and focus it to see what the world's most powerful microscope couldn't. He could see kilometers ahead or behind and had a full 360 degree vision, which was really handy when someone snuck up on him when he fought. Hinata was at the level Neji was at when he started the summer. Sasuke's Sharingan could copy movements and jutsus to the last minute detail. He learned to use it as a sort of tape recorder, to mimic someone's words. His Chidori was now as powerful as Naruto's Rasengan, which was saying something, as the fox-boy's trademark attack had tripled in power since the beginning of the summer. Naruto had been working with Kyubi and was, like Gaara, on speaking terms with his demon. He harnessed Kyubi's immense chakra and could create hundreds of thousands of solid doppelgangers at once. His chakra control and jutsus were excellent.

The Hogwarts ninjas, as they were called jokingly by their friends and teammates, felt sure that they could take whatever this new school threw at them,


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer-Not mine. Except for Saazra. Plagiarism in any way, shape, or form will not be tolerated.

Well, almost everything, anyway.

"Lon-don? What's London?" asked Naruto.

"No one knows, dobe, so shut up and think!" snapped Sasuke. Naruto pouted.

"I'm not a dobe!"

Sasuke sighed and reached over to pull the blond against his chest. "Sorry" he muttered, almost inaudibly.

The rookies were all sitting in Ichiraku.

"It's a place in another dimension." Said Saazra.

(a/n Saazra is an OC that I stuck in there for convenience. He's harmless. Basically he's an old friend of the sand sibs. How else would they get to London?)

All the rookies stared at him.

"And how would you know that?" asked Naruto.

"Because I am essentially the janitor of the universe. I hold the 'skeleton key'. So the speak, to all the worlds. I travel a lot. Plus my niece goes to Hogwarts."

Everyone: Aaaaaaah.

"So, are you supposed to help us get there?" asked Neji. Saazra nodded. "Okay." The ninjas grabbed their packs and all the ninja equipment they thought they would need, including their signature weapons.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

Saazra brought the Key up, then ripped through time/space, opening a portal to the Harry Potter world. The nine ninjas stepped through the hole in space. There was a roaring, sucking noise, then all was black.

Naruto woke up on top of Sasuke. (A/N: whoa.)

"Mmmmm…" Sasuke sleepily muttered something incomprehensible and wrapped his arms around Naruto. His eyes opened slowly. "Where are we?" he asked groggily, his mind still disoriented. Naruto sat up and rubbed his eyes. "I don't know." It took him a full five seconds to remember what had just happened. "Whoa, does this mean that we are in that London place?" They were in a bed in what looked like a hotel room. Their stuff was in the corner. Sasuke and Naruto both got out of bed. Sasuke walked over to the door, opening it and looking out warily. Naruto came to his side and poked his head out, too. There was a landing, then a set of stairs going up and down from that. The ninja heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Sasuke reached for a kunai, then Saazra's head appeared over the top of the staircase. They both relaxed.

"Hey, Saazra!"

"So you guys are up! I just came up to check. Everyone's downstairs." said the ninja.

"Where are we?" asked Sasuke, taking Naruto's hand and walking with him to meet Saazra on the landing. Saazra reached out and closed the door behind them.

"It's an inn called the Leaky Cauldron," he explained as they went down the stairs. "Follow me, the guys are waiting in the dining room."

They entered the ground floor of the Leaky Cauldron, where the Hyuugas and the sand sibs were sitting at a table eating their lunch.

"What day is today?" asked Naruto, taking a seat along with Sasuke.

"Well," said Kankuro, "it seems that when we traveled through the portal, we arrived in London a week before summer ends- which is a good thing, because we need to get our stuff." He held up the list of books. "And if you want to know what time it is, it's 1:30 pm." Neji said, pointing to a clock on the wall. "We saved you guys some lunch." He pushed two bowls towards Sasuke and Naruto, who realized just then how hungry they were and dug in.

"So, um, where do we get our books?" asked Hinata softly. Saazra looked up from where he had been dozing off. "Diagon Alley. I'll take you there after lunch." His head dropped back down. Hinata looked confused. "Diagonally? What's that got to do with anything?" Her cousin shrugged.

"up two, over three, …above the garbage can…"Saazra muttered to himself as he tapped the Key, which now looked like a seven foot tall wand, against the brick wall behind the Leaky Cauldron.

"Is it supposed to be behind that wall?" asked Temari. Neji looked through the brick with his Byakugan. "Wow, there really is an alley there." he said, astonished. "Really?" asked Naruto excitedly. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Just then, the alley opened to reveal Diagon Alley and they stepped through. The ninjas (sans Neji, who already knew what to expect) all were awed.

"There you are," said Saazra. "I'll go back to take a nap. If you need me, shout my name." He vanished back through the bricks.

"Oookay." said Kankuro. "What do we get first?" Gaara held up the list for everyone to see.

"R-what do you call these things? Robes?" Naruto said. The nins didn't seem to notice the odd stares that they were getting from random English wizarding passerby. "Okay." said Gaara. "But where?" They walked through the streets, passing various weird shops along the way. Naruto's eyes widened comically when he saw the Quidditch store.

"What the heck is that? A store that sells _brooms_? Why would anyone sell brooms?" the fox-boy wondered aloud.

"I dunno," said Kankuro, taking out a puppet that looked like a freakish little girl (a/n you guys know what I'm talking about? The really scary blond-haired ones(toys), usually wearing some garish pink little girl outfit/dress, with the creepy glassy blue eyes…shudders creepy, creepy) and began to play with it while walking, making it seem to dance, run, gesture, etc. Hinata watched with interest.

"W-wow, you've gotten really good, Kankuro…" she said. Kankuro shrugged.

They came to a shop labeled "Madam Malkin's Robes for All Ages." Temari pointed to it.

"There's a robe store," she said. "Let's check it out."

TBC

accolay: Yay, an update! HOPEFULLY this one will not come out scrunched and ugly and impossible to read like the other one. Next: we meet Draco and some of our Harry Potter friends! Woot! And maybe find out exactly why the nins were invited to Hogwarts, anyway.

c-m: You are Way Too Excited about this.

accolay: Oh, be quiet.

-whips around-

REVIEW! sparkle –sparkle

I need the moral support. --


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: not mine. No plagiarism tolerated.

Pairings: sasu/naru gaara/neji In the background: temari/shikamaru.

Long-distance relationship!

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Draco Malfoy was not a happy camper.

His day had gone _entirely_ wrong so far. He was sure that somewhere up there, someone was laughing their head off, and it pissed him off to no end. First, he had been unpleasantly awakened because he'd fallen off his bed. Hard. He probably had a concussion. Then, he'd slipped in the bathroom and fallen on his ass, _hard_, (a/n Anyone ever done that? Know how much it hurts? Yeah.) they'd been out of anything good for breakfast, he'd called Harry to see if his boyfriend wanted to meet him in Diagon Alley to get school supplies with him but Harry couldn't come because he wanted to sort things out with Ron, who wasn't taking Harry and Draco's relationship very well on his way here, he'd missed 3 lights and had had to wait an extra twenty minutes(lucky he left early), he'd bumped into more people than was good for one's sanity, walked under a ladder, and broken a mirror, _all _in the space of about five and a half hours. It was safe to say that Draco was…frustrated. Thus was the case when he stormed into the Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions robe shop.

He kicked open the door (as much as he dared to in a public facility, anyway.) and immediately he was facing _weirdos._ One was a blond kid with his hair all over the place and mischievous blue eyes and whisker marks on his face, wearing robes as if he'd never seen them before in his life, talking to this other guy in robes with black hair that was more manageable but still stuck up in the back, with black eyes and a slightly annoyed, more serious look on his face. Standing next to the blond was a shy-looking girl with semi-short, straight, normal looking black hair and weird, white eyes. She was listening to another girl with spiky blond hair in four pigtails with a giant fan strapped to her back and green eyes talk to her about not wearing such big clothes all the time, because she was really pretty but never let anyone see it, and how that was such a shame. The blond girl was straightening the black-haired girl's robes. The strangest guy there was standing slightly in front of the girls and the two boys, playing with-was that a puppet? He had a thing that looked like a mummy with an afro strapped to _his_ back and rather spiky blond hair, like the girl's, reaching a little past his ears. His eyes were also green, but a darker shade and-get this-he had on the weirdest face paint. It was _red_. Who in their right mind would paint their face red? Draco wanted to know. There was a "girl" with straight black hair that reached to the bottom of her shoulder blades and was tied back in a loose, low ponytail standing with her back to Draco, watching a boy, also with his back to Draco, get fit for robes. Apparently, he was the last one to get fit, he had deep, firey red hair. Next to him on the ground, oddly enough, was a big gourd with weird seals on it.. Weasley, Draco thought, his irritation rising.

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Naruto looked up for a moment as a platinum blond boy with a severely pissed look on his face stormed into the shop. He didn't really like the aristocratic, holier-than-thou look on the other's countenance, and neither did Kyubi, but he shrugged it off and went back to complaining about how inconvenient the robes were.

"What's all this extra cloth for? It just makes it harder to move around in. Meh!" He struggled a little in the folds of cloth. Sasuke just snickered a little at Naruto's trouble, which made Naruto pout a little. He looked so _cute _like that.

The others had noticed the kid enter, but as he didn't pose an immediate threat, paid him no heed. Temari was now trying to get Hinata to be able to move right in the robes.

"It's easy, really, you've just gotten this wrong, and you don't stick your hand there…" She finally succeeded and stood back, letting out a breath. Hinata surveyed her sleeves for a minute.

"On the bright side, though, you can hide more weapons in bigger folds of fabric." She said thoughtfully. It was true, Naruto realized. His weapons pouch and all his scrolls and stuff were fully concealed! He grinned happily at Sasuke. Sasuke couldn't resist giving him a small smile and a very quick kiss on the mouth. Very quick. Almost unnoticeable. Kankuro looked up from where he was making his puppet do flips. He turned to Naruto and Sasuke.

"When do you think Gaara will be done?" he asked.

"I think the lady is giving him a lecture on his weight. He _is_ still too skinny." Temari said worriedly. Madam Malkin looked up.

"_Skinny_!" she screeched, so that other customers craned their necks to see what was going on. "He looks downright _starved!_ What's wrong with him!"

Temari and Kankuro looked at each other uneasily. Their abusive father had died only about a month ago, and Gaara was still suffering from the physical and emotional pain. His siblings and Neji were trying to help him through it, but it was a slow process. Gaara had started gaining weight through muscle over the summer, but he was still like a stick.

"We-" Kankuro began.

"These are my smallest robes, and _they_ don't fit him!" Madam Malkin cried. Neji's face was concerned. Gaara was a carefully emotionless mask.

"What's wrong, Weasley, your bitch of a mother couldn't scrape together enough money to even feed you? You must be poorer than I thought." came a jeering voice from the other end of the room. All the ninja's heads turned around to face the speaker. It was that blond boy from earlier! Naruto thought. Now he _really_ didn't like the guy. Kyubi snarled.

**Shukaku is my ally. We will not be insulted!**

Shukaku agreed.

**That boy called us a _weasel!_ The nerve!**

Temari's weasel was only slightly miffed.

Neji was infuriated. His Byakugan activated almost involuntarily. How _dare_ that-that-_boy_ make such a jibe about Gaara's dead mother! What did he know about Gaara?

Gaara was still emotionless, trying very hard to fight the urge to kill the young wizard, but his resolve was weakening under the rage of both Shukaku and a part of himself that still remembered his mother's face.

Kankuro and Temari were also on the verge of killing the blond boy.

"You-!" Kankuro started to growl, but Sasuke beat him to it. He pointed to Gaara.

"Are you talking to _him_?" he asked incredulously. He might not know that much about Gaara's family structure, but at least he knew that Gaara's mother was a very touchy subject for him.

"Of course I'm talking to him! Who do you think I'm talking to?" Draco snapped, despite the feeling of foreboding that he'd crossed a line somewhere and was going to pay for it big time. Sasuke smirked. He didn't like the boy either. (a/n Poor Draco.)

Neji was shaking. He stared at Draco with pure hatred. Draco tried and failed to keep his cool while the "girl" stared at him with the same weird white eyes that the other girl had. But there were veins and odd marks on them now. He shuddered. It felt as if the girl was staring straight into his soul. He decided right there to apologize, because that was what his self-preservation instinct was screaming at him to do. Madam Malkin looked nervously around at all of them.

"I'm sorry! Geez…girls…" Draco muttered. He suddenly decided that now was not the time to get his new robes, and that it was definitely more convenient for him right now to get his books and other things, and that he would be leaving _right now_. He almost ran out of the shop.

Neji _glared_ after him.

"You don't have to be so mad." Gaara said softly, finally done with his robes and stepping down from the dressing stand. He walked over to Neji.

"But he _did_ call you a girl."

Naruto started to laugh at that, breaking up the tension in the room with the sound. One by one, the nins relaxed.

"Neji-hahaha-a-ha-girl-ahahahahahaha!" Naruto was weak with laughter. Sasuke smacked him on the head.

"Dobe, it's not that funny," he said, even though he was smirking, too. Hinata paid for the robes with the money they'd gotten from Gringotts, and the nins walked out of the store. Where next?

"Ooh, an ice cream parlor!"

SMACK

"Itaiiiii…"

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Dumbledore sat at his desk, thinking. He knew that there was a new evil joining with Voldemort that would make the Dark Lord more powerful. Its name was Orochimaru, or so he'd heard. The two both had an affinity for snakes and immortality. He'd invited seven new students to Hogwarts in the hopes that they would know more about Orochimaru and his plans and everything, but he would wait until they got to school for him to ask any questions. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. Nothing to do now but wait.

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another chapter done. I typed this with a headache, so I hope you appreciate it.


	4. Chapter 4

The nins congregated in front of Ollivander's wand shop. They had finally decided to split up and get their stuff that way, and it had ended up going faster. They eyed the small, dusty shop dubiously.

"Do we really need wands?" Naruto complained.

"We have chakra. Isn't that enough? Why do we need sticks of wood?"

"It's for appearances, I guess," Neji shrugged. The nins walked into the shop a little warily.

"Helloooo?" Naruto called. "Anyone home?"

"Hello, young man," Naruto yelped and jumped about a foot. There stood Ollivander.

"Where'd you come from?" he cried.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. Sand shifted invisibly. Something about this man just was _weird._ He couldn't place it. It wasn't a bad kind of weird, though, it was a feeling that the man was _old._

**You're right. The human is ancient. Not older than me or fox over there, but pretty old, for a human. No danger, though. ** The sand ceased.

(a/n They got their wands. To me, it doesn't matter what wand they got, so we'll skip that.)

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"Train station, train station, train station, train station…" Naruto turned the new word over in his mouth.

"What's a train station?" Kankuro asked, ignoring Naruto. He was sitting on a chair in Neji's and Gaara's room in the Leaky Cauldron. Since they'd gotten pets just yesterday, there was a fox, a raccoon, a weasel, and a white bird in various places around the room. It had practically turned into a zoo, Temari had commented. Now the demons were using the animals as vessels so they could use physical bodies. They were still trapped in the humans, but a part of them could move independently now.

"Well, a train is a machine that humans in London-and around most of the world, in fact-use to get around over long distances, kind of like a car-"

"Oh! I know what a car is! It's one of those metal things with wheels that they won't let me get into because I'm only fifteen! " Naruto grinned, it had taken him _forever _to master the concept. Sasuke sighed.

"Let Saazra finish," said Neji.

"Okay. As I was saying, they are kind of like a car, except that they are much bigger and longer, they are made of many 'cars' strung together- a train of cars-hence the name train. They also need tracks to run on, they cannot run on the open ground. This is because their wheels are not made of rubber, like a car's, and _that_ is because the train is so heavy it would pop its wheels."

Hinata's eyes widened as she imagined such a thing.

"These people are truly ingenious." she said. Her cousin shrugged.

"A train station is a place where a train stops to pick up or drop off passengers." Saazra added.

"So we go to this train station, get on the train, and it will take us to the Hogwarts school for juts-magic?" Sasuke asked, just to be sure. He didn't like the idea of getting lost in this strange city.

"Yes," said Saazra, "and Neji might have to help you find it. The station has a hidden entrance because they don't want peole without chakra to see it."

"Strange…" said Naruto, shaking his head.

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**Too. Many. People.**

Shukaku the raccoon growled (if you can imagine a raccoon growling) as he sat on Gaara's shoulder. Several people looked strangely at the seven ninjas, who were still in their ninja clothing from Konoha (or in the Sand sib's case, Sunaga). Neji had also activated his Byakugan, which made things rather worse. He was currently scanning the stations, looking for anything hidden. He now had 360° vision, so he could see not only through everything, but everything around him as well. It was disconcerting, but he'd gotten used to it over the summer. Suddenly he stopped.

"Found it." he said quietly.

Just then, a bunch of people with red hair passed by hem, heading in that direction, straight towards the barrier that led to Platform 9 ¾ . The ninjas stopped as one and stared. Every last one of them had red hair! It was a natural phenomenon. The miracle of genetics! They approached the red family cautiously. Maybe they had a family jutsu (like Byakugan or Sharingan or the Inuzuka's dog bond) that turned their hair red.

"Excuse me-" Temari started to say, about to ask about the red hair thing, but the woman turned around.

"Oh, you must be the new transfers! Dumbledore told me all about you! Do you not know how to get on the platform? Here, you run through it like-"

"Oh, no, okusama, we already found the platorm, I just wanted to ask you-" Temari was flustered. One of the red-haired boys looked interested.

"How'd you find the platform?"

Temari pointed to Neji.

"He saw it." The boy looked impressed.

"Really? How?" But Temari didn't want to reveal Neji's secret technique. She silently gave up on the red hair question. The boy, unphased by her silence, persisted.

"Say, what's your name?"

"Now, Ron, you can chitchat on the bus. Go through the barrier, now, or you'll be late." His mother, Temari assumed she was, herded the kids through the wall. The nins went last. Gaara and Kankuro were annoyed at the red boy-Ron-for flirting with their sister. (a/n He wasn't really flirting, just curious, but Temari's brothers are overprotective) Shikamaru they could stand, Ron, they silently agreed, they couldn't.

They boarded the train without a fuss, lifting their luggage with total ease onto the train, mentally laughing at the people who had trouble. Kankuro even offered to help some kids, but they were first years and took his face paint and impressive physique the wrong way and told him, quite firmly, that no, they were perfectly fine. Kankuro looked at the huge trunks and then at the skinny twelve year olds heaving them onto the train, then shrugged and decided that to each his own. Maybe they were training, and this was a test from the school- to see who was strong enough to haul their luggage onto the train. It would be great for screening out weaklings, Kankuro mused as he walked down the hallway of the machine, which was now blowing purple smoke and tooting alarmingly. Last-minute people were running on. He pulled out a puppet and began playing with it absentmindedly as he walked towards the nin's compartment. He suddenly caught snatches of a conversation behind a door.

"No! Really? You can't be serious!" A girl's voice-shocked.

"No joke. I swear he's gotten a new ally. I think its name is Orochimaru."

Kankuro stopped dead. Orochimaru? Here? He had to find out more about this. Without a sound, he dropped the puppet, switching the actual strings to chakra strings, attached a dab of chakra to the eyes and ears of the doll, and slid it unnoticeably through the half open door, all in the space of about five seconds. He then began to run back to the compartment that housed his companions.

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Harry Potter sat in the train, looking at his friend, Hermione. Her eyes were round, and her mouth was open.

"No! Really? You can't be serious!"

"No joke. I swear he's gotten a new ally. I think its name is Orochimaru." he replied.

There was silence for a few seconds, as she digested his information. Harry heard the rather muffled sound of a person running past their compartment door, but that was the only noise.

"But Harry, that is really bad. With new allies, who knows what You-Know-Who will be able to do? We know absolutely nothing about this Orochimaru!" She looked a little panicked. They both jumped when a few moments later, the door opened considerably forcibly.

A kid with a weird black hat and face paint on, another with slightly spiky black hair, and a third with longish black hair and unnerving white eyes came into the room. Harry reached for his wand. Neji put up his hands.

"Relax, we're not going to attack you or anything," he said.

"We just want to know what you were saying about Orochimaru." Harry blinked. How did they know what the had been talking about? He watched the guy with the face paint walk over to him, crouch down, reach under his seat, and retrieve a doll. This was, according to Harry, very strange behavior. He looked at Hermione, who looked equally confused. But the students standing across from them looked as if this happened every day. The teenager looked up from where he had apparently been cleaning the doll.

"Sorry." he said. "My name's Kankuro, this is Neji, and this is Sasuke. We just, um, overheard you saying something about an Orochimaru and a…You-Know-Who?"

Harry decided to tell them.

"Yeah, Voldemort's gaining power. He's got a new ally, Orochimaru." He watched the other kids look at each other darkly. They hadn't winced at the name Voldemort, which he was mildly surprised at, but his answer came soon.

"Who's Voldemort?" Hermione gasped.

"You don't know who Lord V-Voldemort is? Where are you _from?_" she asked incredulously. The others, excluding Harry, all looked at each other again.

"Konoha is where Neji and I come from, and Kankuro comes from Sunaga."

"Never heard of these places. Are you sure you're from England?"

The nins shook their heads.

"We're from Japan." Neji said, using the country that Saazra had told them to say.

Harry 'oooh'ed.

"So, about Orochimaru-"

Just then, the compartment door slid open for the second time. In the doorway stood Draco. Harry started to wave, but was interrupted.

"You!"

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accolay: Well, there you have it. My longest chapter yet, and it still looks short. I hope this pleases those who asked for longer chappies!

chibi-me: Please review! It makes a difference! It saves the enviroment! It helps starving children across the world!

accolay: …

it does?

chibi-me : Not really, but sshhh. Anyway, please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Draco jumped a little.

Sasuke smirked. Kankuro had a vengeful look on his face.

"You're the one who insulted Gaara's mother!" Neji hissed, drawing a kunai. Harry looked confusedly from one to another. Draco's gaze was focused warily on the kunai.

"Look, I said I was sorry, alright?"

"And you called me a _girl_!" Sasuke started to snicker at that, and Hermione bit back a smile. Even Kankuro was beginning to look amused.

"I-" Draco gaped.

"Don't you dare try to deny it!"

"I-you're not a girl?"

You could almost see Neji's hackles rising. Indignation rolled off him in waves. He rose to his feet. Draco fell back against the compartment door, which had closed.

"That's not what I-I'm-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-it was just a misunderstanding-"

"Neji, calm down! It's not something to get so worked up about!" Harry intervened, starting to fear for his boyfriend's life.

"Yes it is!" Neji snapped, but he subsided and sat down, fuming. Draco took deep breaths and counted from one hundred backwards. Hermione looked around.

"So, Voldemort is basically the most evil wizard that ever lived. He was defeated by Harry when Harry was a baby-" she poked him-"but he's made a comeback over the years. He's now rumored to be allied with a foreign power called Orochimaru. We know nothing about this Orochimaru," she explained, watching the rest of them.

"We do. We know a lot about him, actually. Who he is, what he looks like, what his jutsus are-practically everything except his favorite toothbrush color," Sasuke said darkly, remembering the days when he had been studying with the snake demon, until he had run back to Konoha in the January of this year. Kankuro and Neji nodded. Harry, Hermione, and Draco were all shocked. How did the three know all of this? It was practically like they knew Voldemort himself!

"Naruto fought Orochimaru, didn't he, Sasuke? Or did he just watch Tsunade and Jiraiya fight him?" Kankuro asked.

"He was the Godaime's motivation. But yeah, he pretty much only witnessed it firsthand." Sasuke replied.

"Who's Godaime and Tsunade and Jiraiya-" Harry started to ask, but he was cut off by the train coming to a very sudden stop. The nins were thrown to the side, Draco was knocked off his feet, and Harry and Hermione fell off their seats. The lights flickered off, then on again. Confused students were getting up and sticking their heads cautiously out of their compartment doors, asking questions. The rest of the ninjas crowded into Harry's compartment.

"What's going on?" asked Hermione, getting to her feet. But the ninjas were talking amongst themselves in what Hermione could only assume was Japanese.

"Did you guys all feel that, or was it just me?" Naruto said, looking at everyone else. The others gave gestures of assent.

"There was this huge surge in chakra, then it was hidden, really quickly," Temari commented, snapping her fan open. Hinata looked up.

"It came from the ceiling…" she said, Byakugan activated. Neji looked with the Byakugan, too. He stared, then shouted,

"There's a squad of ninja on the roof of the train! We've got to-"

Just then, the roof of the Hogwarts Express was blasted open.

Hermione screamed, along with several other students. Jagged bits of metal and other materials rained down on the passengers, who went for cover under the seats. The nine ninjas leapt up onto the tattered remains of the sides of the train. They faced ten enemy ninjas, all from Sound. Wordlessly, the Sound attacked.

Sasuke immediately activated his Sharingan, his Chidori crackling to life on his arm. Somewhere in the confusion, he could hear Naruto shouting, "Rasengan!" and saw the familiar flash of brilliant blue light. Unnatural winds from Temari's fan whipped around him as he rammed his fist into the nearest Sound ninja, ripping a bloody hole in the man's body. Scarecrow next to him crushed a would-be ambusher's bones, causing the nin to scream in agony. Sasuke turned and muttered "Thanks" to Kankuro, who gave him a quick thumbs up. Gaara, needless to say, had absolutely no problem dealing with the two remaining ninjas with his Imploding Sand Funeral. The Hyugas finished off their opponents with a last finger to the pressure point. The teenagers looked at each other.

"I get the feeling that was too easy," said Gaara. He looked wary. About five wizards climbed onto the roof of the next compartment, which was intact. The ninjas raised their weapons.

"Wait a second! We're not the enemy! My name is Shacklebolt. Could you please come with me? I need to speak with you." For a moment, the fighters hesitated, but then they jumped back down to the floor of their car and walked into the next one.

"I think we maybe overdid it with those guys from Sound," Kankuro said. They met up with the Aurors, and then walked towards the head of the train. In the background, they saw-or at least Neji saw- some other Aurors fixing the roof of the damaged car. As they walked down the aisle, they felt the stares of the other wizards and whispers from person to person. Scarecrow had its arms around Kankuro, as if Gaara's older brother was giving it a piggy-back ride.

At the head of the train was a space (a/n imagine the room in which Slughorn had his "lunch" with Harry on the train in book six) in which three other Aurors sat. Kingsley motioned for the other ninjas to sit down, then took a seat himself. Naruto sat close to Sasuke, eyes darting from wizard to witch to wizard.

"You are here because you have just done something unbelieveable. There have been news of attacks by those people all summer long, and so far, they have been undefeatable!" Dawlish cried.

"You must be pretty weak, then," Gaara commented from his position next to Neji. Shukaku the raccoon bared its teeth in a grin and stretched on Gaara's arm. Dawlish looked affronted.

"We are nothing of the sort, I assure you! The Ministry of Magic-"

"Oh, shut it, Dawlish," said Tonks. "What we all want to know is _how you did it._" She leaned forward in her seat, her expression serious.

"We need to know. How can we survive these attacks?"

"BSSSTR." Temari said without thinking. The ninjas burst out laughing, but the adults looked puzzled.

"What on earth is BSSSTR?" Dawlish snapped. "Do not talk riddles with us, child!" He reached for his wand. Shacklebolt's eyes flashed.

"Stop, Dawlish! Let them explain."

"It's Baki's Super Special Summer Training Routine," said Kankuro, wiping tears from his eyes at the thought of Dawlish doing it. He went on to explain what it was and why they did it. The wizards' eyes bulged. Tonks could not believe her ears.

"And this is how they make you spend _every_ summer? Horrible!"

"It's not that bad," Hinata said shyly.

"But it won't work on wizards, will it?"

TBC

accolay-Whew! Another one! Please review this chapter, I need to know so I know what to fix when I write the next one. Chibi-me and I are my only betas, so yeah, please, please review!

chibi-me- Hear, hear!


	6. Chapter 6

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Riiight. A singing hat. What next?"

Neji stood in the line of eleven year olds in the middle of the Great Hall, awaiting his "Sorting" as McGonagall-san had put it. He huffed and crossed his arms. His hair was tied back in an extremely low ponytail. He hadn't worn any form of a headband, so the curse mark on his forehead was visible. The hair framing his face hung free of the low ponytail, and Gaara, who had wandered out of his place in the line, toyed with these tresses as they waited. The nins were all in line, but unlike anyone else there, they weren't nervous at all.

"Harrington, Aliza!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Hutchins, Max!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Hyuuga, Hinata!" Neji watched closely(because he's concerned for Hinata, not that he'd ever admit it) as his cousin put the hat on hesitantly. There was a beat.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Hinata gave a shaky breath of relief and walked to the Gryffindor table.

"Hyuuga, Neji!"

Neji stepped forward. Heads turned towards him, and he heard whispers throughout the hall. There were many that noted how pretty he was, and wondered if he was male or female. (a vein popped out on the Hyuuga's head when he heard that.) But the majority recognized him from his stunt with the Sound on the train. Word got around fast here, he noted. He accepted the hat from McGonagall and put it on his head.

_Interesting. Smart, a genius in fact, but rather cold to others…not the hardest mind I've ever Sorted…_

Neji blinked.

_Are you the hat? Can you read my mind?_

_Yes. And yes. Hmmmm..a caged bird, eh? In that case, I'd better put you in-_

"RAVENCLAW!"

Neji stood up, handed over the hat, and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, which seemed very pleased to have gotten the "pretty boy".

Neji cracked his knuckles.

Back at the line, Gaara shook his head. And to think that the Ravenclaws were supposed to be the smart ones.

Naruto, extremely unsurprisingly, got into Gryffindor, Sasuke and Gaara got into Slytherin, Temari went to Ravenclaw, and Kankuro went to Gryffindor.

Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands, making everyone fall silent.

"Welcome back, everyone, to a new school year. As you may have noticed, we have seven new exchange students from Japan this year. I trust that they will all have good experiences at Hogwarts, and at this point, without further ado, we shall eat! Food!"

Dishes of every sort appeared magically on the plates, and the students eagerly dug in. Gaara looked over at Neji's table. About five people were trying to hit on him at once. Gaara snorted, but at the same time, he felt a twinge of something in his heart that he couldn't place.

It's jealousy, Shukaku whispered. Gaara's eyes widened slightly.

Really? Surely not. But even as he said this, he recognized it, and realized then that he did love Neji, and he was just in denial. He sighed.

See? I didn't even have to convince you. Gaara closed his eyes and felt sand rustle on the bench and on the stone floor. A demon was about to give him love advice? He shook his head.

Don't get me wrong, human. I like him too.

And there was an tone to Shukaku's mindvoice that Gaara had never heard before, a predatorial and possessive edge that immediately roused his interest. Shukaku was claiming a mate? Did demons even do that sort of thing?

Yes, we do. You'd be surprised. Closest example: See Kyuubi over there?

Oh.

Gaara shook his head to clear it, then looked about for something else to focus on. Sasuke was eating his dinner, looking disinterested in everything around him. Black eyes scanned the room. The redhead watched him for a while, then realized that Sasuke was looking at Naruto, who was making a ruckus at the Gryffindor table and bragging about being the next Hokage. At that point, Gaata looked away. Suddenly, someone tapped him on the back. He would have jumped about a foot had it not been for Shukaku notifying him at the last minute.

"Hi!" said Neji in a forced kind of voice. "Can I sit down here? I'm having-problems-at mine."

Gaara shrugged and moved over. Finding nothing else to do, he watched Neji as the boy ate, marveling at the beautiful ninja: the way his hair swept back elegantly in a black curtain, the pearly white eyes that saw everything, the lean, muscular body, the graceful way he moved.

"What are you looking for? Something on my face?" Neji's voice snapped Gaara out of his trance/dreamlike state.

"Hm? Oh, no, it's nothing." Neji smiled a little.

"You should eat more, Gaara."

"Okay." Gaara picked up his fork and started to eat.

Dunbledore's voice reached their ears over the noise and chatter.

"Would all the seven exchange students meet in my office after dinner, please."

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That night, the ninja all slept in the same room. They'd found an eight bed, one bathroom bedroom somewhere close to all the dorms, and that was where they crashed. Dumbledore had decreed it for some strange reason. Temari wasn't sure whether or not Dumbledore knew about Sasuke and Naruto, but she was willing to bet that he did- there was a twinkle in his eye when he had called them to his office. The sand nin looked at her two brothers getting ready for the night, (she herself was already in bed, finishing a letter to Shikamaru) and then looked around. Sasuke and Naruto had decided to share a bed and were currently fast asleep, snuggling. Temari smiled. Those two made a great couple, she decided. Hinata, in the bed beside hers, gave her a small smile and a thumbs-up, then settled under her own blankets. Neji was the same. Her gaze went back to her brothers. Kankuro was already snoring. Gaara, in the bed next to Neji's, was staring at the ceiling, apparently deep in thought.

"Goodnight, everyone."

"Good night."

"Good night."

"mumble'nightmmmm…"

"…"

"snoooore."

"Good night, aneki."

She looked at Gaara, then smiled. Setting aside the letter, she pulled the pillow down, wriggled into a lying-down position, drew the blankets up to her chin, and closed her eyes. The lights went off of their own accord.

Gaara lay awake, just thinking, sorting out his feelings for Neji and other information he had gathered that day. On a sudden, bold, impulse, he got up and walked the two feet to Neji's bed and climbed in. Neji mumbled and wrapped his arms around Gaara, nuzzling the top of his head, then sighing into Gaara's hair and relaxing. Shukaku _purred._ Gaara relaxed after only two minutes, and fell asleep himself.

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accolay: Awwwwwwww! Yes, I suck at sap, but I couldn't resist. I Hope this chapter had some point? **hopeful look**

chibi-me: Wow, you've actually managed sap. Congrats. Have a plastic rubber duck. Now, if only we had more reviews…

accolay: TTTT tears Reviews….

Thank You So Much To Everyone that Reviewed. I LOOOVE YOU ALLLLL! You guys make my week. You are also my inspiration. I see lotsa reviews, I write more. I see no reviews, I get discouraged, think that no one is reading my story and liking it, and I don't write more. So PLEASE REVIEW!

Now I'm going to make like the people in my story and go to sleep. Good night!


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Gaara woke feeling deeply refreshed, relaxed and rested.

His eyes opened slowly, taking in the darkness that covers the sky just before dawn breaks. What time was it?

He moved a little, then noticed the strong arms wrapped around his middle. He smiled a little as he saw Neji's sleeping face.

_He really is like an angel._

**Going poetic on me, are we?**

_Oh, shut up._

…_Shukaku?_

**What?**

_Why did you allow me to go to sleep last night?_

**Because Neji was there.**

**I like looking at him when he is sleeping. **

_Hypocrite._

Shukaku refrained from answering.

Gaara untangled himself from Neji very carefully so he wouldn't wake the other boy up, then got dressed and everything before walking to the window. He sat on the window seat, hugging his knees, and stared out at the still-dark sky. Did he like Neji? He closed his eyes and tried to recall a time when he had felt any kind of affection towards the Hyuga. At first, none came to mind. Then he remembered when Neji was helping him get over his abuse, and many instances sprang up. Neji taking him out to ice cream and having it run all over their hands when they tried to eat it in Sunaga's summer heat. Neji taking him to Ichiraku, where they met Naruto and Sasuke and caught them kissing in a private booth. Neji holding him when the memories got to be too much and he broke down. Neji bandaging him that time when his father had gotten really drunk and started beating him with a pipe- if Kankuro and Temari hadn't been there, Gaara doubted he would have lived.

Yes, he decided, he definitely liked Neji as more than a friend. As if on cue, the first hints of sunlight brightened the horizon. It was 6:00am. The other ninjas started to stir, months of waking up before dawn wrestling with jet lag. Kankuro stumbled out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Thank god there were two of them, Gaara noted, or there would be a lot more fighting. He watched everyone move about the room, getting ready for the day.

Temari smiled sleepily at him, yawning and stretching.

"'Morning, Gaara."

He nodded to her, and she went back to pulling on her shinobi sandals.

His eyes fixed on Neji, who had started to comb his hair. He didn't notice he was staring until Neji turned to him and asked if anything was wrong.

"No, no, nothing."

How would he tell Neji that he liked him?

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The Great Hall resounded with noise and chatter as the students ate their breakfast. The ninjas sat at their respective tables, trying to follow conversations.

"Hey, you're new here, aren't you?"

Temari turned to the Asian girl.

"As a matter of fact, yeah, I am."

The girl grinned, then held out her hand.

"Cho Chang. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too."

"So what do you have first?"

Temari pulled her schedule out of the bag she had bought from a store in Diagon Alley.

"I've got…let's see…Potions."

"I hope you don't get on Professor Snape's bad side. He's really mean. Genius at Potions, though."

Just then, there was a rustle from somewhere near the ceiling, then Cho said,

"The mail's here!"

and a split second later, hundreds of owls came soaring through the windows, each carrying letters.

"Whoa!" Temari stared. How much weirder could you get? Sure, as a shinobi, she had seen many an animal familiar carry messages or help with battles. Kiba and Akamaru were just one example. But OWLS? This was a first!

"What's with the owls?"

"Oh, they act as our mail sevice."

"No, that's not what I meant. **Why** owls?"

Cho blinked, then thought for a minute.

"I never thought of that. It's just always been owls, I guess."

Temari raised her eyebrows, then shrugged. Whatever.

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Kankuro yawned. History of Magic had turned out to be the most boring class on the face of the planet. After he'd gotten over the fact that his teacher was dead, of course. A puppet was taking notes for him, and now he had nothing to do except sit in his desk and just kind of stare at the blackboard.

He turned his head lazily to the side and contemplated the window. It was a nice, sunny day outside. He should be out there sleeping or practicing his jutsus, not sitting in a stuffy old classroom listening to a dead man speak! Harry and Ron were snoring. Hinata was taking notes. Naruto on the other side of the room was asleep, drooling on his desk. Kankuro made a small pfft noise and shook his head. That kid. Then Hinata raised her hand. The teacher didn't stop.

"E-excuse me, sir?"

"-and the purpose of this particular diplomatic maneuver was to force the Hobgoblins to return a bag of gold that had been-"

"Excuse me, sir!"

Professor Binns looked up and frowned.

"What is it?"

"May I go to the bathroom, sir?"

"Yes, yes, go ahead." He waved at her impatiently.

Suddenly, movement on the grounds alerted Kankuro. Wasn't everyone supposed to have classes at this hour? He sat up straight and leaned over to the window. Who was that? Not anyone he recognized. He frowned. If Gaara was here, he could follow that guy with his sand, but wait- the person was headed for the Forbidden Forest! Lucky his chair was so close to the window, then. He glanced quickly at the teacher, who kept on droning. Performing the hand seals for the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, he nimbly climbed onto the window as his doppelganger took a seat in his desk. He checked the classroom one more time. Most of the students were asleep or hadn't noticed. Suddenly he noticed the girl, Hermy-whatsit, staring at him with wide, shocked eyes.

Shit.

He'd been seen. Too bad- he would have to leave now. He gave Naruto, who was now sitting up straight in his chair and giving him confused looks, the thumbs-up.

I'm just gonna check something, okay? he hand-signaled.

Naruto shrugged, assuming that Kankuro could take care of himself, and slumped forward again, still watching Kankuro.

Then Kankuro jumped out the window.

Hermione gave a little scream, jumped out of her chair, and rushed to the spot that the puppetmaster had occupied seconds before, banging into Kankuro's desk in the process. Kankuro's doppelganger turned to look at her irritably.

"Hey, what's your problem?"

Hermione's head whipped around, gaping at him.

"But- he just-" By now she had the attention of the entire class. Professor Binns was looking severely at her.

"He just what?" Hinata had come back.

"Kankuro just jumped out of the window, sir!"

"What are you talking about, Miss Granger? He's right there!" Binns snapped irritably. Two interruptions in one class! Intolerable!

"He made a copy of himself and jumped out the window! I swear it!"

"How is that possible? Miss Granger, I am most inclined to believe that you have been sleeping in my class and that you only believed you saw this. We do not sleep in class, Miss Granger! Five points from Gryffindor." Binns said, extremely annoyed.

Hermione slowly walked back to her seat. She looked at Naruto and Hinata. Naruto just stared back at her with a grin on his face, and Hinata whispered "sorry" quietly, as if she was apologizing for Kankuro's behavior. Hermione turned back to the front of the room with a huff. She would get to the bottom of this!

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Kankuro dropped to the ground and flitted out of sight, aiming for the Forbidden forest. Mentally he made an inventory check. Scarecrow was strapped to his back, he had two other big puppets (Kuroari and Kurouma), tens of tiny puppets, and his weapons pouch. He sped up-he could just see the black cloak as it swept over the rise that was the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

The Forest didn't scare him, he'd been through the Forest of Death before and was prepared. This was actually quite similar, with the huge trees and strange animals. Kankuro leapt silently from branch to branch, keeping silent track of his target's progress. It seemed like he was going to meet someone in the woods-but who? And who was he? He was short enough to be a student, and Kankuro could see no visible weapon on him when he remembered that wizards didn't fight with kunai. What had Saazra told them?

**Flashback**

"_Wizards use magic for practically everything they do." Saazra said, sitting on the floor of the ninjas' room in the Leaky Cauldron. _

"_Even to fight?" asked Naruto incredulously. "How can you fight with sticks and magic? Isn't it more powerful if you use your own body to control chakra instead of stuffing it into a tiny piece of wood?"_

"_Yes, but wizards are normally weak when it comes to physical strength(still, you should not underestimate them).They use magic attacks that compensate. I believe that the wood concentrates the magic and stores it, so that the magic is as powerful as a jutsu, but is only in the wood."_

"_Then if you get rid of the wand, they are essentially helpless," said Neji, who was leaning on the far wall. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and looked at Saazra._

"_If helpless means that they have all the power of a normal human without the most basic of ninja training, then yes, they are helpless."_

**End flashback**

Ah, yes, that was it. Kankuro narrowed his eyes at the cloaked man. Suddenly, the guy stopped. Accordingly, Kankuro stopped too, hidden in the trees. Another man came out, taller, with a creepy aura about him, also cloaked. Kankuro took out a tiny puppet and threaded a string of chakra to it. In the form of a bug (thank you, Shino, thought Kankuro) it crawled down the tree and up the man's robe, where it rested, feather-light, on the shirt inside, prepared to record the entire conversation.

The man Kankuro had been chasing began to remove his hood.

TBC

accolay: hi, everyone….tearstears

chibi-me: She is just upset because she only got, like, five reviews for her last chapter.

accolay: WHY? What is it about my stories that you won't review? What's wrong with the story? Just tell me, and I'll try to fix it. Just PLEEEEEEEAAASSSE REVIEW! To those who have reviewed, I LOVE YOU GUYS! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

chibi-me: -- Yeah, what she said. We really appreciate it.


	8. Chapter 8

"What _is_ it, Hermione?" asked Harry. The bushy-haired girl had him by the arm and was dragging him down the stairs, through the corridors, onto the first floor, and out the main doors of Hogwarts. He was barely keeping up with her.

"I refuse to believe that that was Kankuro. It's impossible! Something is up with those new transfers from Japan, I'm sure of it."

"Well, fine, but why do you have to drag us along with you?"

She stopped, turned around, and looked at him, exasperated.

"Aren't you the least bit curious as to why a boy _jumped out of a fifth story window_ in the History of Magic class?"

"No!"

"Oh come _on_, Harry, you just have to see this!" She resumed her brisk pace, thinking aloud.

"Let's see, he was going towards the Forbidden Forest, so let's try that direction."

"But this is our lunch break—"

"No buts, Harry!"

"Aren't you the one who's always telling us to follow the rules?"

"Oh, be quiet!"

They reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and Hermione let go of their hands. They took out their wands.

"Let's go."

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Neji activated his Byakugan.

Beside him, Gaara stared dispassionately at the mess on the floor, arms folded across his chest, while Naruto's blue eyes scanned the room.

Shukaku hissed.

**I don't like this.**

_What do you think happened?_

Blood and…_stuff_ covered the walls. The corpses were barely recognizeable, two students from a house that Gaara couldn't remember, hands twisted together. Certain body parts had been removed.

**Hey, fox, where's your mate?**

Kyubi's red eyes glowed.

**He's two floors up. I just called him down. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?**

**The snake?**

**Huuuuh…yeah. Gotten more violent, hasn't he?**

Naruto looked at Gaara, and they nodded at each other.

"What?" Neji asked, without turning around, he could see them clearly already with his Byakugan.

"Kyubi and Shukaku think that this looks like Orochimaru's work." Naruto said.

"Sasuke's coming down now—"

"What about me?" Sasuke appeared around the door. Then he caught sight of the room.

"Oh."

"Does this look like Orochimaru's work, love?"

Sasuke walked carefully to the corpses, and examined them. "He did mention once this thing he was going to do with the body parts of—what was it he said? Something about lovers, yeah."

Naruto walked up to Sasuke and put his hand on his shoulder. Sasuke took it. He pointed to the bodies.

"See that?" Gaara and Neji walked closer, too. "The hearts are missing, they're ripped out of the chest. He was studying this really old, evil jutsu, I don't know what it was supposed to do. I never got a chance to read it. It had something to do with eternal life or immortality, just like everything else having to do with him, I guess."

There was silence for a few minutes as the nins digested this information.

A shadow crept up the wall, its movement so subtle a ninja of ANBU level couldn't have noticed it. But Neji's head whirled around.

"Back! A trap!" he cried. Immediately the ninjas hurled themselves out of the room. The room exploded in a deadening boom of black that shook Hogwarts' foundations. And then silence.

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Kankuro narrowed his eyes. He had to see who this guy was! Blonde hair. Ponytail…Was it Kabuto? It was, he confirmed, looking through his puppet's eyes. What was he doing here? Who was he talking to? He tuned in to his puppet's ears.

"Have you done your job?" Kabuto asked the taller man.

"Yes. They are dead."

"Where are the hearts?" The man silently handed over a rather bloody bag.

"Excellent…Orochimaru-sama will be pleased."

"And Voldemort?"

"He might be surprised, too, to find these." Kankuro frowned. What did that mean? Hearts?

Dead?

What was going on?

"And we might find a few extra corpses when we get back—I left one of the new weapons in the room," the taller of the two remarked.

"Good work…now we must get back to the site. Let's go." They vanished. Kankuro waited a few minutes, then hopped down from the tree and retrieved his puppet. He stood up, thinking hard. He had to get back to the castle. Something was wrong. He remembered Harry's words—_"They say he's got a new ally. I think his name is Orochimaru."_

Was this it?

Just then he heard panting and the snapping of leaves. He drew a kunai. Harry and Hermione burst through the foliage.

"There you are!" Hermione said, breathless. Kankuro quickly sheathed his kunai. He didn't have time for this. He needed to get back, now, and to tell the rest of the ninjas what he'd heard. Maybe they'd already been notified of the murder. What if they'd investigated, and had been caught in the trap? His stomach lurched at the thought. Gaara and Temari…

"You are going to explain to me why and how you pulled that stunt in class!" Hermione was pointing at him.

"Not now." he said, distracted. "I need to get back to school."

Harry looked relieved.

"Come on, Herm, let's go." Harry said. Kankuro looked gratefully at him.

"Hey, it'll be faster if you travel with me. Here, hold onto these." He unraveled Kuroari, ignoring the stunned looks on the two wizard's faces.

"Are you coming or not?" Kankuro looked at them. Harry and Hermione looked at each other, silently debating, then nodded. Harry and Hermione climbed onto the giant puppet's back, and Kankuro led the way back to Hogwarts.

Harry was confused. Kankuro looked as if he'd been traveling through forests like these all his life, while he and Hermione had been struggling with all the greenery. The wind whistled past his ears. They were really going fast. Harry mulled this over. Kankuro had seemed distracted and worried, in a hurry to get back to Hogwarts. Why? Was something wrong over at the school? Did Kankuro know something about it? He glanced back at Hermione, who had apparently been thinking along the same lines. What was going on?

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Gaara blinked, trying to see through the wall of sand that had automatically appeared as soon as the boom occurred. His friends were beside him, looking equally shaken.

"Neji, man, I owe you one." Naruto let out a long breath and leaned into Sasuke as the sand shifted out of the way and back into Gaara's gourd.

"You too, Gaara. Were we toast, or what?" Naruto got to his feet, as did Sasuke, Neji and Gaara.

Then they noticed that there was a mob of students crowded around them, looking awed.

Dumbledore stood at their head, looking grave. Beside him were Temari and Hinata, shocked. They were looking into the still-smoking room, which had turned pitch black.

"I think you need to come with me."

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accolay: Okay, I think I must say this: _words cannot express _my gratitude towards all my reviewers. **I LOVE YOU GUYS.** Thank you SO much for reviewing. I genuinely, genuinely appreciate your support and comments.

chibi-me: It really made us happy.

accolay: On a less freak-out note(pfft) I have EXAMS tomorrow. Which I am going to FAIL.tears well up I need to study!

Once again, thank you for reviewing, and I hope you review this chapter as well!

REVIEW!


	9. Chapter 9

Hi everyone! I'm back—please don't kill me!

chibi-me: They probably have a right to…you haven't updated since MARCH!

accolay: eep! Forgive me! Please read and review this latest chapter of Magic no Jutsu and tell me what you think.

"What just happened?"

Temari peered around the smoldering black hole that used to be a spare classroom and coughed.

"I can't see anything in there." She pulled a fan out of her robe and waved it at the smoke, trying to clear the air.

"How about you, Hinata?" The black haired girl activated her Byakugan.

"Hmmmm…I can't see anything. If it was here before, the blackbomb eradicated it. There is no trace of anything remotely recognizable. No bodies, no furniture, no nothing." She deactivated Byakugan and shivered. "It's creepy…"

The crowd behind the two kunoichi was muttering. Some students pushed and shoved, trying to get a better view. Some were already gossiping. Temari scowled. By nightfall, there would probably be a lot of rumors about her brother, Neji, Naruto, and Sasuke. She wasn't sure she really wanted to hear them. When the teachers started to shunt the kids down to the Great Hall, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Where was Kankuro?

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"We're finally back!" Harry rejoiced as they got off the huge puppet and Kankuro wrapped it up again. Hermione frowned at him and he shrank back.

"What do you mean, 'finally'? This just gets more and more complicated! Hey! Kankuro! Where do you think you're going? Get back here! I'm not finished with you yet!"

_CrapcrapcrapcrapCRAP! What's her damage! Can't she leave me alone for one second! _Anime tears streamed down Kankuro's face as he picked up the speed

while he raced up the stairs to where he'd seen his little brother last.

"Whuh—"

There was a gaping hole in the wall, and it was black, and it smoked ominously. And standing right next to it was—

"Temari!" He ran up to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Are you all right? What happened? Was Gaara or anyone hurt?"

"Calm down, aniki, Gaara, Neji, Naruto, and Sasuke were in the room when it exploded BUT!" –she raised a hand to stop Kankuro as he began to freak out—"they were fine, Shukaku protected them, and now Dumbledore's speaking to them in his office." Kankuro visibly relaxed, the air and tension going out of him in a deep breath. Hinata timidly patted him on the back. Suddenly he straightened up, making both kunoichi jump.

"Oh yeah! I saw Kabuto in the Forbidden Forest—Ah, dammit, where's Sasuke when you need a tape recorder? I want to have the conversation recorded word for word, my puppets can be destroyed—Come on, we're going to Dumby's office!" And with that he dragged the two stunned girls off down the corridor.

"Dumby…?"

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Dumbledore looked at them sternly over the tips of his half-moon glasses.

The four ninja looked right back, except the effect was kinda spoiled by the fact that they looked like they'd crawled on their stomachs through a coal mine.

"First off, I want you to tell me ex_actly_ what you saw in that room."

The nins looked at each other.

"Well," Naruto began, "there were these two dead bodies, and then there was gore all over the walls and floor and ceiling and stuff, and then the bodies were all ripped, and the hands of the corpses were intertwined, and the hearts had been torn out—"

"I think that there is a ju—spell that Orochimaru (the guy that this Voldemort of yours is supposed to be allied with) is going to use, and it requires the hearts of lovers. I can't remember details, though." Sasuke interrupted.

"I saw this little black shadow out of the corner of my Byakugan, and then the room exploded."

Dumbledore looked at them speculatively.

BAM.

The door burst open and Kankuro, Hinata, and Temari rushed in. A professor, very flustered, was in their wake, saying things like "You can't see him now, he's busy," and "Stop right this instant!" Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at the man.

"You may leave now, Professor Griswold."

"Ah! Y-yes, sir."

"Sasuke!" Kankuro pointed at the bored-looking nin.

"What do you want?" Sasuke sighed. Kankuro whipped out a small puppet from the depths of his robes.

"Here. Record this! It's got Kabuto on it—I met him in the Forbidden Forest, there's not really time to explain, but long story short, I saw him, then followed him to the woods, where he met this creepy guy, and this is their conversation."

Dumbledore watched with interest as the black-haired boy's eyes turned red with little pinwheels in them. The small machine--strange, Dumbledore thought, aren't Muggle electronics not supposed to work in the Hogwarts grounds?—started to speak in an astoundingly accurate replication, down to the last minute detail, of Kabuto and the other ninja's voice.

"_Have you done your job?" _

"_Yes. They are dead."_

"_Where are the hearts?" _

"_Excellent…Orochimaru-sama will be pleased."_

"_And Voldemort?"_

"_He might be surprised, too, to find these." _

"_And we might find a few extra corpses when we get back—I left one of the new _

_weapons in the room,"_

"_Good work…now we must get back to the site. Let's go." _

The little puppet fell silent.

"Well? Got it?" Kankuro looked at Sasuke, who was staring intensely at the puppet. Then the copy-nin blinked, and nodded.

"Got it."

"Well. This confirms Sasuke's suspicions. Orochimaru is up to something…" Neji narrowed his eyes. A strand of hair fell into his line of vision, and he slowly swept it back and undid the loose ponytail, combing it out with his fingers meditatively. He looked over at Sasuke.

"Can you remember what the jutsu was supposed to do?"

Sasuke shook his head.

"Then shouldn't we try to find out what it does first? W-while we do that, maybe we can also examine the effects of the blackbomb…I mean…shouldn't we try to also prevent more things like that happening again? Gaara-niisan's sand could protect against it, but the rest of the student body…" Hinata trailed off, poking her fingers together and sinking further into her parka. Temari smiled at her.

"That's a good idea, actually. I can mail Shikamaru about the dust from the explosion…"

"I can test my sand on it. See what I can do." Gaara spoke up from the corner where he had been watching Neji comb out his hair in a semi-trance. Not that anyone noticed.

Dumbledore smiled slightly.

"And I can go inform the students of what has transpired. Thank you for your cooperation. Ah…I think we shall all stay in the Great Hall for now, classes will be held there until further notice. Hyuuga-san—may I call you two Neji and Hinata?—I think it might be wise for you to keep your white eyes _open_ most of the time, if you know what I mean. You two seem to be the only ones who can spot the blackbomb…thank you. And now, off to the Great Hall!"

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There was much noise and chatter when the nins got to the Hall, but it ceased as they walked in. Gaara could feel everyone's eyes on him, reminding him uncomfortably of the days when he had been considered a monster and shunned. He was surprised when Kankuro and Temari walked up on either side of him.

_You're not alone anymore._

He looked at Naruto, his first friend ever, and the only other person he knew who shared his pain of being a demon-carrier. He looked at Sasuke and HInata. Then he looked at Neji.

"_There's only one thing that can cure these wounds of the heart, Gaara."_

"_What is that, Yashamaru?"_

"_It's love."_

Gaara was content.

Neji watched, amused, as Gaara glared back at the students, which made them turn away. He waited for Gaara to catch up, then moved into place beside him.

"Where do you think we should sit?"

Hinata pointed at Harry and Hermione, who were (at least Hermione was) jumping up and down and waving them over. Kankuro cringed.

"This does not bode well…I am so not sitting next to that nosy bitch." He started to back away slowly. Temari grabbed his hand.

"Don't be such a wuss, Kankuro, we have nowhere else to go! Come on!"

Naruto was already bounding towards the corner where the two Gryffindors were, grinning like an idiot and dragging Sasuke by the wrist behind him. Sasuke was flopping up and down comically, waving like a flag in the wind, trying to make it seem as if he didn't know the blond.

"I'm kinda surprised he's on top." Neji remarked, which made Gaara smirk. Temari and Hinata giggled, and Kankuro choked.

They walked over to the fox-boy and his boyfriend.

Dumbledore walked to the podium and called for silence.

"I have something to say to you all…"

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Another chapter! And the plot develops!gasp

chibi-me: Wow, I'm reaaally surprised. I didn't think you had the mental capacity—you know what, we're not even going into the subject of your nonexistent mental capacity. To the nice readers: Please review!

accolay: Yes!

PLEASE

REVIEW!

Tell me what you think I can improve on. Tell me what you like so I can do more of it.

And what was that you said about my brain? I know it doesn't matter, because I know you love me anyways.

chibi-me: **chokes on chocolate milk**

Please REVIEW!


	10. Chapter 10

And another chapter—I'm on a roll. I'm trying to compensate for not updating in two months…I'm really, really sorry.

Warning: It's a little late, but MAJOR DRACO OOC IN THIS ONE. Like, he's sobbing and stuff. Apologies for any inconvenience.

chibi-me: By the way, this is **not** a Kankuro/Hermione fic. Kankuro doesn't have a very high opinion of Hermione…he thinks she's nosy and she thinks he's dodgy and frustrating and a meathead.

P.P.S. Sasuke is on top.

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"As many of you have heard, there is a new threat to the wizarding world, one who has joined with Lord Voldemort. Many of you have heard of Orochimaru."

There was dead silence.

"Orochimaru is not your average Dark wizard. Orochimaru does not fight with a wand. Orochimaru is a snake demon, a very dangerous one. You could say that he is also a Parseltongue, and is akin to Voldemort in many ways. He is extremely powerful, both physically and magically." Here Dumbledore paused, his gaze sweeping the room. Everyone's eyes were fixed on him.

"What a lot of you just saw in the fourth floor corridor was an example of his powerful spells and explosives. If you ever, ever meet him—and I sincerely hope that you do not—treat him exactly as if he was Lord Voldemort. Orochimaru is a very real threat to the wizarding community. Currently, he is making a spell which we do not know the purpose of which involves brutally murdering and stealing the hearts of young lovers."

Here, there was a reaction from the audience: friends were drawn closer to each other, hands were clasped.

"If I may now turn the podium over to a few people who have seen and fought with Orochimaru—your new transfers. If you would?" Dumbledore stepped back as whispers started. The ninjas disappeared in various poofs of smoke and reappeared next to the podium (except for Gaara, who disappeared in a whirl of sand) Sasuke stepped up first, and the sound-amplifying spell placed on the podium made the boy's voice echo faintly around the room in a slightly eerie fashion.

"If I may differ from Dumbledore-sensei on one point?" Dumbledore nodded.

"I do not know that much about Voldemort, but from what I can tell, there is one **big** difference: Orochimaru is a pedophile. I'm sure you all know what that means."

There was a pause while everyone's eyes bugged out.

Sasuke had a straight face as he continued.

"Besides that, he often fights with doppelgangers, which means that unless you have a bloodline limit like me or Neji and Hinata over there, you never know whether you're fighting the real him or not. So watch out for that.

One of his objectives is to gain eternal life. That might be the reason he is doing this—helping out Voldemort, I mean. About the blackbombs—right now, we have no way of knowing where or when they will hit. We don't know how many the enemy has." Unconsciously, he started slipping into the voice he usually used when delivering a mission report.

"Hyuuga Neji and Hinata can see the blackbombs, and they are the only ones so far who can. Evidently, before they explode, they look like small, black shadows, and they move extremely fast. The only current known protection against these is Gaara's sand shield. Once again, to emphasize, be on the alert. That is all."

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Draco stared at the sky.

The sky stared back at him.

It was a beautiful day, Draco thought. Grass swished all around him, a gentle breeze blew across the grounds, and the lake so calm it looked like a mirror, a giant mirror just sitting there in the middle of a lush green world. What few trees were losing their leaves this early in September were out of Draco's line of vision. He should feel like taking a nap, but he didn't. He had too much to worry about. With Harry being at the top of the Dark Lord's Most Wanted list and everything, he had a lot to chew on. He sighed and shifted on to his side. And on top of everything else, there were those new kids. The "transfers" as the headmaster had called them…they were as weird as anything else. He was still in shock about the whole gender-bending fiasco with Hyuuga. He could swear that the (_boy,_ he firmly remnded himself) glared at him every time they passed each other in the halls. God that was freaky. He wasn't sure what he thought of the others, though…Naruto and Sasuke were so obviously a couple, there was no question, and the sister of the redhead was definitely taken—he could tell, but…the others—Hey, he thought, mentally slapping himself, Draco Malfoy! What are you _doing, _thinking about the sex lives of the weird people! This is _not_ what you think about in your spare time! Get it _out _of your head! _Out _of the head! OutoutoutoutoutoutOUT! He slapped himself in the face repeatedly.

"Uh…Draco?...you okay there?"

Draco froze and looked up slowly.

Harry's (as it appeared to Draco) beautiful, warm, sparkling, smiling face shone down at him with ultimate kindness, understanding, and compassion and immediately banished all thought of the weird people from his mind.

"Harryyyyy!"

Harry found himself glomped by the platinum blond, who was sobbing tears of joy into his shoulder and saying things like "My knight in shining armor!" and "I love you, Harry!" and "Save me from the weird people that want to take over my braaaiin!"

Harry made a "wtf?" anime face, then forgot about it and just enjoyed the attention.

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"By the way, Harry, what are you going to do about Ron?" Hermione asked in an undertone as she took some bean sprouts from the dish in front of Neville. Harry closed his eyes and leaned his head on the table.

"I've been really trying, Hermione, really, but he's being a pigheaded ass right now. Not helping is the fact that Draco has sort of sworn enemies with him since me and Ron had that whole fight the day I told him about our relationship…Draco takes every chance he has to snipe at Ron, or showcase our relationship in front of him." He sighed, then looked over at her.

"At this point, I really don't know what to do."

She looked at him.

"I could try talking to him. Maybe he doesn't want to talk about it with you."

"Yeah, could you try that? Thanks a lot, Hermione, that means a lot to me…" Harry cast his gaze around at Naruto and Kankuro, who were arguing because Naruto, in the process of making some wild speech, had gesticulated a little too much and had knocked his hand into what was apparently a delicate puppet of Kankuro's that he had been trying to fix. Why Kankuro had brought it down was a mystery, mused Harry, wasn't a dining table a dangerous place for a delicate puppet?

Kankuro's dark green eyes flicked over to Harry.

"What?" Naruto, glad for the distraction, also looked at Harry.

Harry was saved the trouble of replying when Sasuke walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Naruto with his arm around said blond.

Harry blinked, then smirked and looked down into his cup as the argument soon became two against one with Sasuke on Naruto's side.

Hermione watched Kankuro with a stubborn look on her face.

"What?" Harry asked her, amused. "You seem to be tailing Kankuro a lot lately," he leaned over. "do you like him?"

"What! No! Ew! Ewewewewew!" Hermione batted at Harry. "That's gross! What gave you _that_ idea?"

Dumbledore chose that moment to stand up and clear his throat.

The dining hall fell silent.

"I have the pleasure of introducing more new last-minute students to Hogwarts. They are, along with the other new students, who by now I hope are not so new, (it is September twenty-ninth!) going to be teaching a new class for defense against ones such as Orochimaru. May I introduce Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Ten-ten, Rock Lee, and Sakura Haruno?"

TBC.

chibi-me: There. Now do your lab report!

accolay: Please review!


	11. Chapter 11

"Omigodomigodomigod! NO. WAY!"  
"Omigodomigodomigod! YES. WAY!"  
"I WILL SHOW THESE YOUTHFUL STUDENTS THE AMAZING LOVELY YOUTHFULNESS OF THE LOTUS OF KONOHA! I WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN GAI SENSE-"  
"SHUT UP LEE!"-three people at once (Neji, Tenten, and Sasuke)  
"Do they have chips in London?"

"Naruto, don't you DARE tell Choji where the kitchens are."

"I wasn't _going_ to!"  
'Akamaru! akamaru! Where's he got to now? He'd better not have gone potty indoors again!"  
"I'm soooooooooooooooo hungry! Sasuke buy me ramen!"  
"DOBE! There's no ramen in London!"  
"Sasukeeeeeeeeee…"  
"...don't look at me that way, don't look at me that way, don't look at me... oh fine, Naruto, let's go see if there's anything in the kitchens…"  
"Yay!"  
"He's got you so whipped it's not even funny…"  
"Shut **up**, Shikamaru. Think of Temari."  
Gaara blinked.  
"AKAMARU! I told you **5 times** you canNOT go to the bathroom indoors!  
Next time no treats for a month!—HEY GUYS? IF YOU SEE ANY FUNNY-LOOKING PUDDLES OR WHATEVER—"

"Define whatever."  
"DON'T SIT DOWN IN IT, OKAY?"  
"I think we know, Kiba."

"GAI-SENSEI, I SHALL NOT WASTE THIS LOVELY OPPORTUNITY TO ENLIGHTEN THE YOUTHFUL MINDS OF THE YOUTHFUL VILLAGE OF HOGWARTS! I WILL WALK INTO THE SUNSET—"  
Gaara stood up and maneuvered his way out of the space, he couldn't take anymore of this. His head was pounding. Kankuro and Hinata had already fled to the sanctuary of their own respective little corners. Nearby he saw Tenten talking with a group of Hogwarts girls.  
"It's Tenten. Just Tenten. That's it. Like Cher."  
"Who?"  
Gaara rolled his eyes and was about to move on when a hand grabbed his. The sand immediately had a vise grip on the hand's wrist.  
"Ow." Neji breathed.  
The redhead slowly turned around, and the sand relaxed.  
"Neji?"  
The long-haired nin smiled through his pain.  
"It was a little too loud, so I thought I'd follow you. Is that okay?"  
Now Gaara's heart was pounding in time with his head. Neji? Wanted to...  
_Yes you idiot. Grab this opportunity!_

Gaara looked at the hand on his wrist.  
"Uh…sure."  
On the way, they ran into Harry and Hermione. Their faces were pale. Hermione pointed a shaking finger at the other nins.  
"Is it safe?"  
"No." Neji replied cheerfully, and, grabbing Gaara's hand, marched off to  
the other side of the Great Hall.

The next day, Lee alone sent numerous people to the hospital wing (where they were diagnosed with temporary blindness and/or mild mental trauma) by the sheer fact that he insisted on wearing skintight green robes with orange socks. He sent several more to the same place with ear problems.

Choji got detention twice for eating in class, and when his friends tried to explain that he needed to eat this much because of his jutsu, they all got detention also.

Shikamaru surprised everyone, especially his teachers, by sleeping through his classes and giving the right answers anyway.

By lunch, however, everyone was thouroughly exhausted. The nins collapsed at the the table where they all ate lunch. Except for Lee, who would not collapse over something like that.

"Rock Lee. I am _never_ speaking to you _again_." Neji said weakly from where he had laid his head on his arms as a pillow.

"We still have a class to teach." Kankuro pointed out. Neji groaned. Temari elbowed Shikamaru, who had been trying to fall asleep.

"YOU are not going to fall asleep! We need your help, too!" Shikamaru grumbled and turned his head over, eliciting a poke attack from his girlfriend.

"Alright, I'm _up_!"

He yawned and stretched.

"What are we teaching them again?"

"The basics—we're basically taking the job Iruka had for most of us." Sasuke replied.

Shikamaru groaned. "Kids are so troublesome!"

"Some are your age." Tenten pointed out.

Sakura and Ino put their heads together and started a lesson plan.

Hinata propped her head on her hands on the windowsill. Their class started in five minutes, and she was a little nervous. She was naturally shy, and now they had asked her to teach! What if they didn't listen to her? What if she didn't teach the right things? What if—

"Hinata?"

She yelped and jumped.

"Kiba! You scared me!"

The dog boy grinned and walked over. Akamaru barked a greeting from his place on Kiba's shoulder.

"You ready for this thing?"

"No," she replied truthfully. "I-I'm a little nervous."

"Hey, don't worry about it, we'll be fine. As long as you remember what you learned in grade school. Sakura and Ino are definitely going to be successful."

Hinata smiled a little. "Yeah…"

The doors opened, and the students started to trickle in.

Finally the doors closed, and Kiba and Hinata turned to their new class.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Kiba, this is Hinata, and welcome to your first ninja class…"

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Done! WHEW! Thought I wouldn't get to write this until I got back to my country….but a rare opportunity popped up and I seized it. Hope this is satisfactory! Please review!

chibi-me: Amen!


	12. Chapter 12

AN: AAAAAAAAHHHH! I'm SO sorry!! I haven't updated in three months!! I apologize to all my lovely lovely reviewers. I am not worthy. I just transfered to a new school, and things were pretty damn hectic for a few months.

chibi-me: smacks accolay on the head You better be sorry. turns to reviewers Please do not give up on our story!!

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Shino narrowed his eyes at his class, expression unreadable behind his reflective sunglasses. Boring fools, he thought. Why was he here again? And what was his teaching "assistant", Kankuro, doing snoring away in the back of the classroom? His eye twitched. Most of the class were sweating nervously.

"Uh...sir?"

Shino turned and focused his stare on the hapless individual. Said student swallowed convulsively.

"Ah, uh, that is to say... I was...I'm sure we all were thinking--"

Don't lump us in with you!!! the rest of the class thought furiously.

"--uh, wondering when you would..I mean, you're supposed to be, well, teaching us,,,,riii..ght..? No? Okay, I'm sorry, don't be mad, I'll just..."

"Harold! Shut up!" his friend hissed at him.

Shino slowly turned back to his class.

"Yes, I see how it is." He raised his finger to eye level, and watched a bug crawl across it with apparent fascination.

Holy shit, is that a bug?

Dude, a bug just crawled across his finger.

EEEW!! I REALLY hope that isn't what I think it is!!

Isn't that a bug?

Dude, that's a bug.

Did a bug just...no way!!

That's kinda cool...

Oblivious to the various expressions he was receiving from his class, Shino let it crawl back into his skin. Straightening a little, he  
mentally prepared himself, then spoke again in a bored monotone.

"Right. I have resigned myself to my fate. Pair up. The first thing I would like you to do is focus on your inner selves. Some would call this meditation, but I also want you to try and call out magic without using your wands. We will do this for the remainder of the class period. If I catch you fooling around, make no mistake, you will regret it."

The class sat, stunned at such a long speech from the silent teenager, then hastily gathered into pairs.

He's really scary...

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In Sasuke and Naruto's class, since Naruto remembered next to nothing from his elementary school days with Iruka ("DOBE!! How the hell did you become a ninja if you didn't even know the basics?!" "Well,  
eheh...I kinda just played it by ear. I guess..." "...you're so stupid  
sometimes..."), Sasuke was doing the lecturing and Naruto was  
demonstrating.

"And if you focus your chakra properly, which is the aim of this class, you will even be able to transform your own body without use of a wand, or make "doppelgangers"-- many different separate copies of yourself to confuse the enemy. Naruto will demonstrate. Naruto, if you will."

"SEXY NO JUTSU!!"

"AAAAHHHH!!" sound of thirty nosebleeds at once

"NARUTO!!!!!"

"Eheheheheh...sorry, wrong one."

Sasuke hit him on the head.

"Ooow, what was that for, Sasuke?"

"DOBE!"

Class: sweatdrop

(a/n: you had that coming to you, Sasuke... --;;)

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Gaara regarded his class stoically.

Neji put his head in his hands.

This is SO not happening.

"Trevor! NOO! Come back to me!! Trevor, where do you think you're going! No! Don't go there! Bad toad!!"

"EEK!!!"

"Toad on the loose!!"

"TREVOR!!"

Shukaku roared with laughter.

...shut up.

Sand moved restlessly around the room, but Gaara restrained it. He would NOT stoop so low as to stop a mere toad from hopping around a classroom. He would not. He would not. He--

Neji looked at him as only those suffering from the mother of all migraines could.

"Gaara. Please."

Sigh.

Sand rose from the ground in a small wave and caught the toad just as it was about to hop down the shirt of fifth-year girl.

Dammit.

"SO." Neji got up from the desk, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

"I think today we'll just start with meditation."

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"YYYOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! I GREET THEE, YOUTHFUL AND EXUBERANT STUDENTS OF THE VIRILE SCHOOL OF HOGWARTS!! TODAY YOU WILL BEGIN YOUR PURSUIT OF THE WONDERFUL JOYS OF NINJUTSU!!!! I, ROCK LEE, DO SWEAR UPON MY HONOR AS A MAN TO TEACH YOU AS MUCH AS YOUTHFULLY POSSIBLE!!! NOW!!! LEAVE EVERYTHING TO MEE!!! FOCUS YOUR CALM YET EXCELLENT SELVES INWARD!! YOOOSH!!!" grin/thumbs up (nice guy pose)

Class: so bright!! can't...see--going...deaf...

Tenten:used to it sigh. facepalm

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Dumbledore checked in on the other classes. Kiba and Hinata seemed to be doing fine, the shy girl writing on the board and the dog boy speaking enthusiastically. Temari and Shikamaru...he smiled to himself. He had done well in putting those two together, whenever Shikamaru found something too "troublesome" Temari would force him to go into further detail. The two girls, Sakura and Ino, also had everything under control, and Choji was willing to work with them.

"Sir, is everything well?" Professor McGonagall asked, walking towards him from the opposite direction.  
"You seem deep in thought."

"Ah, Minerva, it's nothing, nothing."

"Albus, you're laughing. I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not." Their footsteps echoed throughout the stone hallway as they left the scene.

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"Lord Orochimaru."

The snake man's gleaming yellow eyes slid over to rest on the bowed head before him.

"Yess, Kabuto?"

The blond bowed, then straightened and pushed his glasses up his nose. "A message from Lord Voldemort-sama. He says we seem to be doing well and is pleased with our progress." A smirk.

"Ahh, Kabuto. Tell me what you think of this missive."

"Frankly, Orochimaru-sama, I think that it is mildly insulting. He must believe we are doing his dirty work for him. How degrading."

"Indeed, Kabuto, indeed. What shall we do about this little glitch?

How shall we remind him who, exactly, has the upper hand in this situation?" A semi-rhetorical question. The snake grins, skull-like, showing far too many teeth for a human, and a thrill runs through Kabuto. This is what drew him to Orochimaru-sama, this raw power and bloodlust. He smirks again, glasses glinting.

"I await your orders, Orochimaru-sama."

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accolay: ok, I know that was really inadequate, but it will have to do. i have SO. MUCH. HOMEWORK. is ded

chibi-me: to accolay Get some sleep, darn you. As for everyone else, please review and tell us what you think!


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